From 2nd Elementary School of Paleo Faliro. GREECE.
Proposed by Mary Frentzou
marifrent@yahoo.com

"The War Between the Sandpipers

& the Whales"

(a Folk Tale from Micronesia)

Retold: by Elaine L. Lindy

ONE DAY LONG AGO, on a faraway island in the South Seas, a great whale entered a quiet lagoon. Along the beach, a sandpiper was running in and out of the water, picking up little minnows for breakfast. The whale called out, "Yo, little bird! Stay out of my water! The sea belongs to whales."
        Sandpiper, annoyed because the whale's sudden rising had swooshed away the minnow she was about to eat, said, "Since when? The sea belongs to sandpipers. Besides, there are many more sandpipers in this world than there are whales, so just leave me alone!"
        Whale could not believe his ears. "Are you out of your mind?" he called out. "There are far more whales than sandpipers."
        "Is that so?" said sandpiper with her beak in the air. "Well, I'll gather together all my friends, and you gather together all of yours, and we'll count each side. We'll see who has more."
        "You're on!" said Whale. He swooshed around and sounded his call. From the east, the west, the north, and the south, whales began to swim toward that island. Soon the bay was so crowded with whales there was hardly any ocean water to be seen between them!
        Sandpiper saw all these whales gather and was worried. She called her sandpiper call to the east, the west, the north and the south. Soon, sandpipers from all over the world came flying in to the faraway island in the South Seas. Sandpipers covered the entire beach and all the trees.
        So which side had more? It was hard to say. The Whale sounded again and called his whale cousins: the dophins, killer whales and porpoises. When all of Whale's cousins had arrived there were so many sea creatures they surrounded the island from all sides. Everywhere there were sea creatures spouting and diving.
        Now the sandpipers were very worried. Quickly, they called their cousins, too - the gulls, the terns, the cormorants, even the herons. When all the seabirds arrived, they not only covered the beaches but stretched up into the mountains. There was not an inch of land on that island that was not covered by birds.
        So - which side had more? It was still hard to say. Then Whale thought, "If we whales eat up the beach, the birds will all drown. Then surely there will be more whales than sandpipers!"
        The whales started to take large bites of shore and sand; in big gobbles the beach was disappearing into the mouths of the whales.
        Then the sandpipers thought, "If we birds drink up all the sea, the whales will die. Then surely there would be more sandpipers than whales!"
        Swarms of birds flew down to the ocean and drank and drank. Before long, Sandpiper noticed something alarming: there below him, hundreds of whales lay dying without water. The creatures of the sea too all lay gasping, including the minnows!
        "Oh my gosh!" said Sandpiper. "What are we doing? All the minnows and crabs, that's our food! We can't let this happen!" Quickly, Sandpiper told all the sea birds to spit out the water in their mouths. Which they did.
        Slowly, the whales started to move. The tiny sea creatures burrowed into the sand or scurried away. Whale, too, began to revive.
        "This whole war was a bad idea," he thought. "What were we fighting about, anyway? The ocean is plenty big enough for all of us."
        Whale told all his whale cousins the war was over and it was time to go home. Sandpiper told all of her sandpiper cousins the war was over and it was time to go home.
        Since then, no one's ever found out whether there are more sandpipers in this world or more whales. And the whales and the sandpipers have gotten along just fine ever since without knowing one way or the other.